Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/919877
18 FEDA News & Views What Can E&S Distributors Learn from the Distant Thunder and Others Who've Heard Similar Rumblings? rateurs, educational institutions, labs and Fortune 500 companies. "I started writing about them years ago, warning lighting distributors to be wary," says Brown, who for 30 years served as president of Wiedenbach- Brown, a national full-service lighting and electrical solutions distributor founded by his great grandfather in 1913. "Jeff Bezos can do anything he wants to do. He's got unlimited resources, unmatched technological talent, phenomenal logistics, and Wall Street doesn't demand that he make money like everyone else." Free from the grind after selling Wiedenbach-Brown to U.S. Electrical Services LLC. (USESI), Brown began vigorously interjecting himself into conversations about the future of the lighting industry through a series of articles in tED magazine and other industry publications on what he called "Illumigeddon." Searching for a way to articulate the change overtaking the industry, he coined the phrase to call out traditional distributors bent on staying traditional, and were "in total denial" about the impact that new play- ers and emerging technologies would have on the channel. "The first wave of disruption was technological," Brown says. "The intro- duction of solid-state lighting (SSL) or LED presented some challenges to our existing business model. It required our people to learn a new language, under- stand a new technology and to be able to sell and promote it." But for consumers, it was a win-win. Compared to incandescent light bulbs, which have a life span of roughly 1,000 hours, LEDS can provide 50,000 hours or more. "They're a great ROI for the customer and offer massive opportuni- ties for retrofit in the short-term," says Brown. "But in the long-term, it will hurt our replacement business." LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE By Stacy Ward, Editor in Chief stacy@feda.com Having gone through a couple of phases of disruption, Wiedenbach- Brown CEO Chris Brown has been where distributors in the Foodservice Equipment and Supplies Industry are likely headed. Amazon surfaced on his turf about six years ago, selling com- mercial lighting and electrical products. Back then, the serial disruptor was calling itself Amazon Supply but the new-and-improved version, Amazon Business, is promising to deliver the Amazon experience to businesses, both big and small—in addition to offering installers, manufacturers and other local professionals a platform to extend their reach. Since its metamorphosis in 2015, the shipping giant has generated more than $1 billion in sales and this past July announced it's amassed more than 1 million customers representing a cross section of businesses and industries, including government agencies, restau- "THE E&S INDUSTRY IS NOT GOING AWAY. THE ONLY THING THAT'S GOING AWAY ARE THE COMPANIES THAT CAN'T KEEP UP WITH CHANGE.'' — MICHAEL MARKS, CO-AUTHOR OF WORKING AT CROSS-PURPOSES: HOW DISTRIBUTORS AND MANUFACTURERS CAN MANAGE CONFLICT SUCCESSFULLY Michael Marks